Album Review: Full Blown Chaos - “Within The Grasp Of Titans”

It’s been a full three years since Full Blown Chaos has released a full-length. Within that time they’ve done lots of hard touring, and thanked many bands as evidenced by the thank you list on the inside of “Within The Grasp Of Titans”. For a band on some fairly small record labels (Jamie Jasta’s Stillborn Records and Abacus Recordings) they managed to land themselves on the 2006 Ozzfest.

The more “brutal” style of metalcore is a variation I like a bit more than standard melodic metalcore. I can’t think of too many bands playing this specific style of metalcore, so having a lack of direct competitors really increases the entertainment value of “Within The Grasp Of Titans”.

Full Blown Chaos comes from the school taught by All Out War, with their thrash heavy attack and race to the breakdowns. Other bits and pieces have made their way onto “Within The Grasp Of Titans”, such as a couple portions with a full on death blast, a melodic metalcore styled melody (you’ll notice I didn’t compare it to Gothenburg) and a simpler song hinting at their old school hardcore influences. The songs are short and to the point, usually clocking in at around from just under two minutes, to two and half minutes. Amazingly, ending a song early and creating an introduction to another song that sounds like it could be an interlude tends to really pull the album together. The album stands tall as a whole as an whole, but the songs aren’t as strong when played as a standalone.

While the focal point of most metalcore is of course the breakdowns, Full Blown Chaos treats them different by putting the focal point more of a metal/riff oriented style breakdown within most of their songs. The majority of songs usually have only one great big breakdown instead of watering down average length songs with two or three. Not only that, but it seems that’s where the creative energy was spent on more often, so while there are a few “chugga” style breakdowns, they’re few and far between, and done differently than most other bands.

A trip running through “Within The Grasp Of Titans” is a slight bit derivative. While not a direct sound alike to All Out War, many comparisons can still be made. Short songs also have a tendance to lack some depth. That being said “Within The Grasp Of Titans” is extremely fun.

3.5/5

Full Blown Chaos At MySpace
Full Blown Chaos At Stillborn Records